Heard as far south as Jerusalem, alerts, loud booms came as Syrians used anti-aircraft fire against IAF warplanes and Israel launched air-defense missiles in response

Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria, the IDF said early Friday, an attack that led to sirens and sounds of explosions in Israel in the middle of the night.

A little before 3 a.m. local time, warning sirens, which warn residents of Israeli towns of incoming rockets, sounded in the Jordan Valley. At least two distinct explosions were heard as far west and south as Jerusalem.

Initial reports said the sirens and explosions were believed to be from rocket launches in either the West Bank or Jordan.

But military officials said the sirens sounded when Israeli missile defense systems detected a missile launched at the Israeli Air Force planes during their strike against unnamed targets in Syria.

The explosions, the army said, were launches of Israeli air-defense missiles against an incoming Syrian anti-aircraft missile.

The IDF statement said neither civilians on the ground nor IAF pilots were in any danger at any point during the incident.

The sirens sounded at 2:43 a.m. near the Jordan Valley communities of Gitit, Mesoa, Yitav and Yafit in the Arvot Hayarden regional council, which straddles the Jordan River in the West Bank.

IDF ground forces in the area initially launched a search for fallen rockets in the mountainous terrain.

There was no word about the nature of the targets struck by Israel in Syria, but the IDF has regularly attacked weapons convoys in the war-wracked country in recent years that were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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